Pi

Pi is an important mathematical constant. It is defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. In formulas, pi is represented as a Greek letter () while diameter expressed as "2r" (double the radius). So the relation is:

The value of pi is approximately 3.14 or 22/7. The exact value cannot be expressed as a fraction or as a decimal number, regardless of how many digits are used. Lambert proved this in 1761 by showing that pi is an irrational number, which means that it can't be expressed as a fraction.[2] In 1882, Lindeman proved that pi is also a transcendental number, which means that it can't be expressed as the solution to any simple equation),[3] which means that it can't be expressed as a fraction.

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History

Pi is the sixteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. It was first used with its current meaning in 1706 by a Welsh mathematician William Jones.[4] because it is the first letter of the Greek word for perimeter (the circumference of a circle is its perimeter).

Mathematicians have worked for centuries to calculate pi to more and more decimal places. To some extent, the progress of mathematics—or at least of computation—can be gauged by the progress in the number of digits to which pi has been calculated.

Some ancients expressed pi by using fractional approximations. Papyrus of Ahmes, dated c. 1650 B.C., shows that ancient Egyptians had value 3 1/6 = 3.167). The Babylonian value from the same era was 3 1/8 = 3.125.[5] Both these values are accurate to within 1 percent. Note that the value 22/7 is still used today.

Archimedes of Syracuse (287-212 BC) carried out "the first theoretical calculation" of pi.[6] He said it was between 223/71 and 22/7. This is ten times better than the Egyptian and Babylonian values, and it is within 0.04 percent of the correct value. The German-Dutch mathematician Ludolph Van Ceulen used Archimedes's formula to calculate pi to 32 digits in 1615. He was so proud of his achievement that he had the digits engraved on his tombstone.

During the plague of 1665-1666, Isaac Newton was confined to the English village of Woolsthorpe. There he calculated pi to 16 digits. Unlike Van Ceulen, Newton did not consider his calculations to be an achievement. “I am ashamed to tell you to how many figures I carried these computations, having no other business at the time," he wrote.[7]

In 1706, John Machin, secretary of England's Royal Society, developed a quickly converging formula for pi and used it to calculated the first 100 digits. In 1844, the idiot savant Johann Dase of Hamburg used Machin's formula to calculate 200 digits in less than two months.[8] In contrast, William Shanks spent twenty years calculating pi to 707 places, a task he completed in 1873. In 1945, it was discovered that only the first 527 of Shanks's digits were correct.

ENIAC, the first electronic computer, took seventy hours to calculate 2,037 digits in 1949. In 2008, the first million digits of pi were published on Project Gutenberg.[9] In 2014, the anonymous programmer Houkouonchi calculated the first 13.3 trillion digits of pi in 208 days.[10] This result has not been published.

Pi in mathematics

It's impossible to overestimate the importance of pi (and e) for mathematics. These values are tied by Euler's identity:

.

Recreation

Memorizing pi is a challenge that appeals to some people. Mnemonics have been devised. Counting the letters in each word of the phrase "Now I want a drink—alcoholic, of course" gives pi to seven places (which is more than enough for all ordinary purposes). Numerous other mnemonics of this kind have been devised; in 1995, Michael Keith wrote one entitled Near a Raven which simultaneously parodies Edgar Allen Poe's poem The Raven, while encoding pi to 740 places.

March 14 marks Pi Day, a holiday on which the mathematical constant is celebrated. The date, 3/14, comes from the first three digits of pi. Some people begin their celebration at 1:59 pm, derived from the following three digits.

Pi Approximation Day is a similar holiday, celebrated on 22nd July (from the approximation 22/7).[11]

Greek language usage

This letter's name is pronounced the same as its equivalent Latin letter in English (p), and has the phonetic value, /p/.

Does the Bible attempt to define pi?

Virtually all serious students of the Bible say no. Still, critics frequently claim that the Bible contains an incorrect value for pi, and the question is raised frequently enough to earn mention in the Skeptics Annotated Bible.

He made the Sea of cast metal, circular in shape, measuring ten cubits from rim to rim and five cubits high. It took a line of thirty cubits to measure around it. 1_Kings 7:23 (NIV)

Thus, critics say, the Bible claims that the value of pi is three, and is therefore in error. However, there are a number of assumptions in this claim, any of which might invalidate the argument if wrong:

That the tools and system of measurement available to the builders were sufficiently accurate to distinguish between three and pi.

That the phrase translated as "circular in shape" means perfectly circular, not simply "round" as an ellipse is round.

That the Bible is trying to provide a value for pi, and not merely describing the historical event of building this object.[12]

That a value is wrong simply because it depends on imprecisely expressed divisors. The ratio that is pi can be derived completely accurately for a whole range of values[12] even if the Sea is taken as a perfect circle, namely when, before rounding to the nearest whole number, the diameter is known to be greater than 9.5 and less than about 9.708, and the circumference greater than about 29.845 and less than 30.5, it being quite common at the time to round to whole numbers.[13]

That both the diameter and the circumference are measuring the same edges. Since the sides of any practical vessel have thickness, it is possible that the diameter is an outside measurement and the circumference is an inside measurement.[13]

That both the diameter and the circumference are measuring the same part of the object. The object is also described as having an outward-turned rim. The easiest places to measure the diameter would be across the wider rim, and the easiest place to measure the circumference would be around the body below the rim.[14]

Common sense and a rudimentary knowledge of the Bible should cause one to question whether it sets out to define mathematical concepts. The creation of a "sea of cast metal" by human beings in ancient times, without modern construction tools and measuring equipment, does not require nor could it utilize a precise value for pi. An even more fundamental objection is that pi is an irrational number, and therefore has an infinite number of digits. (A "closed form" of pi does exist, but requires mathematical notation that was invented many centuries later.) A decimal expression of pi could not "fit" in the Bible, or in any other finite text.[12]